CLEARWATER, Fla. — Roy Halladay wears a pullover windbreaker, not the jersey adorned with his name and number. He has thrown a baseball, but only to warm up new Phillie and No. 34 A.J. Burnett prior to Tuesday’s workout, not to venture to a mound himself.

No, the two-time Cy Young winner insists, his retirement is iron-clad. And the two weeks that he is spending with the Phillies as a special instructor have not made that decision to step away after two seasons of physical pain and steep decline tougher to digest. If anything, it has helped the process.

“That’ll hold me over for a few weeks,” Halladay said of his catch with Burnett, his teammate in Toronto for two seasons and successor as a veteran right-hander in the Phils’ rotation. “I’m good at this point. But it’s hard not to get the itch. I’ve just enjoyed being here, to be with the guys, talking to the guys, and some of the younger players I’ve gotten to meet. It has been different. I’ve enjoyed it.

“(Retirement) was the right decision for me. I felt it was the best option and the only option. I still feel good about it, and I’m enjoying doing this part of it right now. It’s been a good change.”

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The transition from player to coach means that Halladay goes from being wrapped up in his own preparation to applying all his energy and knowledge to others. Ask pitching coach Bob McClure if Halladay has been useful and he laughs at the understatement.

“Are you (kidding) me?” McClure said. “Doc is such a level-headed person, so he’s easy to talk to about things like that. If he’s critical, it’s in a helping way and not a bashing way. It’s more like he’s being critical to help the guy. It’s not, ‘he can’t do this,’ it’s, ‘he’s having trouble doing this, and this is how he can do it.’ It’s been outstanding.”

Halladay has been making the rounds and watching as many pitchers work as he can. However, he took a hard look at top prospect Jesse Biddle’s session to hitters in live batting practice Tuesday, and Wednesday he was watching Phillippe Aumont and Ken Giles take their turns at hitters. All three of those pitchers unquestionably have top-flight arms, so talent isn’t the question.

Halladay knows it comes down to what’s going on between the ears, particularly for Biddle and Aumont.

“For me I think the stages they’re at, it’s just the mental part and confidence,” Halladay said. “There’s just that extra confidence you see in everyday major-league players as opposed to maybe a guy at Triple-A or Double-A.

“It’s really brainwashing themselves into thinking it’s something they can do consistently. That’s really what it takes. Some guys need to have that success first, but in the things I’ve seen a lot of guys can start to believe that. They talk themselves into that over and over, and suddenly they become it. … It’s kind of fake it until you make it. I had to do that with myself. … It is, in a way, a form of brainwashing.”

Halladay will be around until Grapefruit League games begin. He would like to make his instructor role an annual pilgrimage. Perhaps down the road he’ll think about trying his hand at full-time coaching in the pros. For now, he is a fairly valuable youth coach to his sons.

“I think this first year I want to make sure that I get to spend the time that I want with these boys and my wife. That’s my priority,” Halladay said. “Once I see how things work, yeah, I’d love to continue to do it and if I have more time, do more. I’ll always continue doing it. It’s just a matter of starting to figure out how much I can do. Once the kids are gone, maybe it’s something to do full time.”

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Ryne Sandberg once was caught in a logjam at second base for the Phillies, with veteran Manny Trillo ensconced and two other young, talented middle infielders named Juan Samuel and Julio Franco in the system.

The way the Phillies dealt with that dilemma was to trade Sandberg to the Cubs before the 1982 season. Oops.

The Phils have a similar backlog at third base these days. Cody Asche took over at third base last season when Michael Young was traded and showed promise at the plate and in the field. Maikel Franco, meanwhile, had one of the best offensive seasons by any prospect at any level, torching pitchers at Class A Clearwater and Double-A Reading.

It’s the proverbial “good problem to have” — that is, until you trade away a Hall of Famer.

“You watch them play and evaluate the player,” Sandberg said. “There is some experience to be gained there. Let them play. Evaluate them. Then make a decision. Sometimes it’s organizational, what’s best for that player and his career. The biggest thing is to determine when a guy is ready to be in the major leagues.”

Although he’s only seen Franco for a few days, Sandberg understands why he’s considered the organization’s top position-player prospect and made it clear the 21-year-old’s fielding at third base is better than adequate.

“He really moves good at third base — a really good glove,” Sandberg said of Franco, who hit a combined .320 with 36 doubles, 31 homers and 103 RBIs in 134 games last season. “He has a knack for the harder the play it is, the softer he is. I don’t know where he got that. … That’s instincts. That is second-nature stuff.

“I’ve seen him in live BP have a good, quality swing already. He’s shown a lot of good stuff. I see him working really hard.”

Sandberg was more vague when it came to how firm a hold Asche has on the job, only saying that there are a lot of jobs up for competition in camp.

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NOTES: The star of morning practice was an opossum that seemed out of sorts as it hung out on the outfield fence at Ashburn Field, causing a scene and a delay before it was corralled. “One of those ospreys didn’t go down and clean him off?” Sandberg asked. “I saw an osprey with a nice keeper, about a 13-inch (fish).” … Burnett threw another bullpen session and it seems signing late and missing the first few days of camp aren’t going to delay his progress. All of the veteran pitchers seemed crisp.